| It's an old adage that a workman is only as good as | | | | environmental contaminants into the system. |
| his tools. Technology may have changed but the | | | | Ruggedized fiber optics may be resistant to certain |
| adage still applies. When you are providing fiber optic | | | | types of intrusion, but they can also be damaged by |
| services, a complete set of fiber optic tools lets you | | | | all sorts of contamination. |
| complete the job more quickly and completely. Let's | | | | The Easy Way |
| consider the example of troubleshooting a fault in a | | | | A technician armed with a full set of fiber optic tools |
| fiber optic cable plant: | | | | will find the troubleshooting job much easier. A high |
| The Hard Way - Without The Right Fiber Optic Tools | | | | quality launch cable and an Optical Time Domain |
| An under-equipped technician might have nothing but | | | | Reflector allow the technician to locate the general |
| a Visual Fault Locator (VFL). Although it is technically | | | | location of the fault in no time, saving hours of |
| possible to diagnose a fiber optic fault with a VFL, it | | | | manual checking. The technician merely has to note |
| is a tedious procedure that might create more faults | | | | the location of the last Fresnel reflection to narrow |
| along the way. | | | | down the break, which is usually in or near an |
| Using the VFL, the technician would have to trace | | | | interconnection box. |
| the fault by laboriously checking the entire plant, | | | | The Optical Loss Test Set will show the technician |
| section by section. Each patch panel has to be | | | | whether the fault is on the input side (fiber or |
| opened and all the connections checked. Not only will | | | | connector), the output side (fiber or connector), or in |
| this take a long time, but when engaged in such a | | | | the box itself. Again this is an easy test that saves |
| monotonous routine it's easy for the technician to | | | | manual checking which runs the risk of damaging the |
| miss a connection and overlook the fault entirely. | | | | fiber. |
| However there is a more important problem. | | | | If the fault lies in the fiber the technician can often |
| Checking the fiber optic cable plant out in this manner | | | | see or feel it. If it is in the connector, a microscope |
| can actually damage the fiber. Each time the fiber is | | | | will reveal the fault most of the time. If the |
| handled by the technician, there is a chance that a | | | | technician still can't find it, an Optical Leak Detector or |
| new fault could be created. Once a fault is found, the | | | | VFL will show it. |
| question remains is this the real fault or one induced | | | | This is just one example of how the right fiber optic |
| by inspection? | | | | tools can save your technicians time and effort. The |
| Not only can handling the fiber create problems, but | | | | faster you get a fault fixed, the happier your |
| each time the patch panel is opened it can introduce | | | | customer will be. |